The Amish in Appalachia

The Amish in Appalachia by J. Marshall Porter Usually, when we hear of the Amish, our thoughts turn to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is true that that locality has a larger population of these thrifty farm people than any other area in America. But the Amish sect, which numbers more than sixty thousand persons, has its clans or groups in twenty of our states. The Amish I know best are those who inhabit Western Maryland and Southern Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Basically, the Amish are tillers of the land, and they grow the crops that thrive best in the area and climate in which they are located (although tobacco growing is forbidden by the bishops of some congregations). For those who are not familiar with these unique people, they are a religious sect that originated in Switzerland when Menno Simons, a priest, broke away from Catholicism during the Reformation and founded the Mennonite Church which united all followers of Menno for nearly 200 years. Then in 1693, two prominent European M"ennonite leaders, Hans Reist and Jakob Amman, became dissatisfied with the tolerance that church was showing for members who had defected from the 21 Fine Horses Good Workers faith or wanted to become more worldly than had been permitted by the founders of the church. Amman soon gathered a group of members who wished to cling to the old discipline and he formed what is known as the Amish Mennonite Church. The church thrived (often under persecution) in many countries of Europe until the great migration to America began. Being peace-loving people, many came to escape conscription in European armies. It is believed that the first Amish came to Pennsylvania and Maryland from Switzerland in 1763. Many of them had learned trades in their homelands. In America they found only virgin timber to be cleared from the land before they could begin cultivating it. Their trades helped them to become self-sustaining quickly in the new land. They could build their homes, do their own masonry work, do their blacksmithing, make their shoes and clothing. They obtained vast tracts of land and worked co-operatively to build rail fences on the lines between their farms. They helped each other build their houses and barns. They worshipped in each other's homes until they could build a church. Their custom was then, and is today, to buy farms near or adjoining others of their faith, and they will pay enormous prices for farms once a settlement is begun. There are two reasons why the Amish choose to live in close-knit communities. These hard-working, industrious people's lives are guided and directed by their religious belief, and church attendance is a must. Also, their primitive method of travel (horse and buggy or carriage) does not permit them to live far from their place of worship. "Be ye a peculiar people" is a Biblical command that they adhere closely to, so they dress plainly and live their lives in separation from the secular world. If anyone who was not familiar with them were to travel through Amish coun22 Working Well Together try on a Sunday morning, the sight of people dressed in black, driving horses hitched to steel-tired buggies and carriages on their way to church would be strange and amusing. With patient and impatient horses tied in the church yard, the two-hour preaching service goes on in the plain, unpretentious church where the men are seated on one side and the women and small children on the other. The bishop preaches all sermons in German. The womenfolk wear white prayer caps and black uniformlike dresses that reach below their shoe tops. Other than joining in the singing of hymns , which are sung in a chant-like manner with no musical accompaniment, the women take no part in the church work. Ministers assist the bishop when necessary as the long period of worship takes place. Throughout the nearly three hundred years of existence of the Amish Mennonite Church, the followers of Jakob Amman have remained true to the faith of their fathers. These Anabaptists do not practice infant baptism, but they are baptized at an age of accountability...